Time is generally recorded, managed and reported in a variety of circumstances. The effective tracking of time is critical to particular professions when compensations and charges are based upon the amount of time expended to provide a service or complete a project. Examples of professions where time keeping is important include attorneys, doctors and the like. Tracking time is also important for allocating project costs and meeting project completion deadlines. The time information recorded is also useful for budgeting future projects or services.
A variety of time tracking or management systems are currently available. Such systems come in a variety of different formats. For example, in one known application, time is recorded by clicking a button of a mouse or a key of a computer keyboard upon commencement of an activity, and clicking once again at the end of the particular activity. The system automatically calculates the duration of time spent in the activity. The start time, the end time and the duration are all presented in a row of fields on a computer screen. Additional fields state the date of the time entries. In addition, blank fields are displayed in the same row as the time entries for recording client, activity, reference, and comment for the particular time entry.
In a completely separate screen or window, the user may obtain summary information. In particular, the user is prompted to enter a start date and an end date for the summary, as well as summary criteria (either a client, activity or reference, or combinations thereof). Once this information is entered, the system calculates and displays the total time entered during the time period of each particular client, each activity of each client, and each reference of each activity of each client, depending upon the summary criteria chosen. The system further calculates and displays a total time for the particular time period and a percentage of the total time that is entered for each client, client and activity, or client and activity and reference category. It displays time in hours and minutes or hours with decimals. The system is also configured to round time up or down or to the nearest minute interval.
The system provides a pull-down menu for creating project identity icons (client, activity, reference) which are depicted in a toolbar at the top of the screen. When such project identities are created, the user may click on one of the identities at commencement of an activity which causes both the start time and the project identity to be simultaneously entered as a new entry or row. Several other time tracking or timekeeping systems are also available which track time in a similar fashion.
Although such systems are quite common, procedures for recording, tracking and displaying time are somewhat awkward and tedious to use. Moreover, the amount of time information provided by such systems are generally inadequate under many circumstances. As a result, there is a continuing need for a time recording and management system that is simpler to use and that provides more useful information to assist in the management and tracking of time.